Page:Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories Vol.5 (1907).djvu/22



ROM the beginning the villagers said that there was something queer about the Baron, "Farmer Christian's Baron," as they called him. Of course, even the most inveterate gossips of the neighborhood didn't expect things to turn out just as they did. But the gossips enjoyed themselves because of the outcome, which enlivened many a long winter evening for them. They were sorry for Christian, of course, but they said it did him good. And then he was a rich man, and could stand a lesson even if it did cost him quite a pretty sum.

Christian Lahusen, owner of the Sea Inn, was a man whose carriage and bearing, one might say his whole attitude toward life, showed that his bank account was of a satisfactory heaviness, and that his land was good land which repaid his labor and his confidence.

The Lake Inn farm belonged to the wealthy village of Briigghofen, near Kiel. The farm itself was of considerable size, with good rich loam and a fine beach wood surrounding a pretty little lake from which the inn took its name. Agriculture and the fishing in the lake were not the only occupation of the owner of the farm. His many-sided energy allowed him to give sufficient attention to an eating and drinking establishment in one wing of this house, and not to neglect over it a general store at the opposite end of the large building. Besides the favorite lager beer which he ordered from Kiel, he brewed a beer on his own grounds which was eagerly consumed by all the neighborhood, and also sold in considerable quantities to other inns in the vicinity. A large metal shield with golden letters on a black ground told all who might be interested that